Sir Paul McCartney has performed The Beatles’ Help! in full for the first time in his solo career.
The 83-year-old musician kicked off his US tour with a relatively-intimate performance at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Friday (26.09.25) and the warm-up show began in style when he delighted the 4,500 fans in attendance with a surprise rendition of the classic.
The last time Help! was performed in its entirety was by The Beatles themselves in Wales on 12 December, 1965, the year the song was released, while Paul previously included a minute-long snippet of the song in a medley which paid tribute to late bandmate John Lennon on his 1989 and 1990 Flowers in the Dirt tour.
Fans were required to store their phones in secure pouches during the show, so no video footage of the performance has emerged online, though some footage of Paul singing Help! during the soundcheck has been captured on social media.
The Live and Let Die hitmaker typically focuses more on Beatles material which he wrote, rather than John, during his solo gigs.
John previously reflected on how Help! was a genuine cry for help.
He told Playboy magazine in 1980: “When Help! came out in ’65, I was actually crying out for help,” Lennon told Playboy in 1980. “Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n roll song.
“I didn’t realise it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie [Help!].
“But later, I knew I really was crying out for help. It was my fat Elvis period … I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for help.”
Meanwhile, Paul previously admitted there are times he still hears John’s voice when he’s writing new songs and will take on board the advice he imagines his late pal would have offered.
Speaking on the A Life In Lyrics podcast, he said: “Often I’ll sort of refer… ‘What would John think of this? He’d have thought it was too soppy.’ So I’ll change it.
“That interplay was miraculous. You don’t have this opposing element so much [now]. I have to do that myself.”